


Promise

by fatrock



Series: Pasts [5]
Category: Underworld Capital Incident (Video Game), Vocaloid
Genre: Angst?, Dark, Friendship, Gen, Kinda Songfic, Memory Loss, PTSD, PostWar, Rivalry, Romance, Sleep Deprivation, War, fps (vocaloid song), i was wrong about the silk but shrugs, prewar, some gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-25 09:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7527439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fatrock/pseuds/fatrock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even if it took a million years they'd meet again. Maybe again was sooner than expected?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

> At this point with the adding of new characters this series will be ongoing haha. It took me almost a whole year to plan a story board for this! Neru's FPS helped me in a way. I also had a dream about writing this a long time ago... Some of these are facts that I know and other stuff, some may be inaccurate.

It was like any other day that day. He had been smoking his pipe and the sky looked rainy, as almost every time they had a difficult deceased one. He sighed heavily aas he let his breath escape his mouth.

"Rokkaku-san?" It was Saeki

"Hm?" He replied without turning his back

"I have the reports from the mission, would you like to look at them now or...?"

"Leave them be, I'll get to them when it's time."

"Yes sir!" He heard the shorter male leave the papers on his desk and scurry out

He sighed again. The rain really brought back the worst of things. It felt like it was yesterday.

\- late 1940-

"XXXX Rokkaku!" He stood up straight as his name was called

"Yes sir!" He replied to their squad leader

"You will be sent near the hospital."

"Yes sir!" He replied with slight disappointment before looking at the man next to him, Saitou

"XXXX Saitou!" The leader repeated

"Yes sir!" Saitou replied

"You will be sent to the front! You've done well to deserve to serve for our country." The leader put his hand on the other man's shoulder

"Yes sir!" Saitou beamed

Rokkaku felt his heart sink, hadn't he proved his worth? He trained for the last 4 years to be sent to the front. It wasn't fair that his friend got sent to the front and not him... They had promised that they'd go anywhere together. Now it was broken.

After the leader was done assigning everyone to their posts, everyone was given some time to say their farewells.

"Hey, Rokkaku..." Saitou approached the tanner male

"Hey, yourself..." He spat back

"I'm sorr-"

"YOUR NOT!"

"Rokkaku..."

"We- I worked so hard, and yet you get the transfer! Like in school... You take all my chances away!"

"How was I supposed to know this would happen?"

"How...? HOW?" Rokkaku threw himself on the taller male with eyes tearing up, "This is how..."

Saitou didn't say anything as he let his friend cry. Time felt as if it stopped as they shared this last moment together.

"IT'S TIME TO GO!" Their leader shouted urgently "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! WE'RE MOVING EVERYONE TO THE HOSPITAL ZONE!"

Rokkaku and Saitou got up and ran towards the truck as they heard enemy planes coming in to drop bombs. Soldiers were still packing up as they heard the bombs dropped and the shots fired from the planes. It was an aerial attack, when they were at the weakest. Left and right bodies were falling like rag dolls. Some were trying to fight back, efforts useless.

"ROKKA-" Saitou's voice was cut off by gun fire

"THE TRUCK! WE'RE ALMOST THERE!" Rokkaku had yelled

"M-My leg!" Saitou was beginning to freeze up

'Not here please!' Rokkaku pleaded to God

Once they were on the truck it drove away due to max capacity. They were lucky then, now only if their luck didn't run out. As they sat solemnly covered in darkness as night passed. Every now and then there'd be moonlight that shed in through the holes left by the bullets. Some men had made it alive on the truck and were dead now. Others were hanging on with the little strength they had left. Some where trying to stop the bleeding from life threatening injuries. Others were crying silently.

The bullet that shot at Saitou's leg only grazed it,however since the bullet had been heated up from the pressure it also gave his leg a burn which began to swell up. For now they wrapped a cloth around the injury. Rokkaku wished to God that his friend would die anytime soon.

However in this world God doesn't exist.

The next day they arrived at the Hospital Zone. There all the injured and dead were taken away. The few uninjured like Rokkaku were left to clean up the truck.

By the second day in the Hospital Zone, they were allowed to visit their almost fallen comrades.

There he met Kirika, one of the top nurses around at the time. They had met in the hall a few times only a few words like "Sorry." and "Pardon me." were exchanged. After a while they began to know each other a bit better.

"Saitou!" Rokkaku walked over to his friend who was on crutches

"Hey." Saitou smiled back slightly pale

"How is it?"

"Not too bad, the doctor says I'll remain here for two more weeks before being sent off to the front..."

"Oh..." Rokkaku was happy he still had time with his friend, but the mere thought of the front made his stomach sink again

"Don't feel bad. Before you know it, I'll be back up on me two feet!" Saitou smiled jokingly, "After all this war is just a game!"

Rokkaku looked down, he wished it was a game... Then all this pointless fighting could be over, then none of them would have to go to the front, no rivalries.

"Rokkaku?" Saitou looked worried at his friend, "Is everything ok?"

"Hm? Oh. I'm ok... I just need some time to think alone..."

"I see... I'll see you in the mess hall then?"

"Yeah."

The two walked away from each other. Rokkaku sighed as he walked to the little garden they had. How could Saitou pass the war off so easily... He didn't even know the answers to anything anymore.

"Hello, what's bothering you?" It was Kirika

"Ah, Kirika-san..." Rokkaku smiled vaguely before looking down again, "I don't know the answers anymore..."

"Hm?"

"Why are we even fighting so hard? All this pointless bloodshed?"

"It's true all this bloodshed maybe pointless, but one day you'll see..."

"Eh?"

Kirika winked at him, "The future generations... This is just the calm in the storm... The real storm maybe coming sooner than expected."

"The real storm?'

"One day you'll understand."

Rokkaku was getting kinda irritated by the way Kirika was speaking.

"But..." She continued "It's best now if you live in the moment and be thankful that you haven't become part of the bloodshed yet."

"Yeah..."

Rokkaku looked at the sky. It was always a dirtied yellow color. It wasn't due to chemicals but Rokkaku thought that even the sky had given up on its blue color and gone to rest. It seems everything had given up on them.

"Kirika-san." Rokkaku looked at her with deteremined eyes "Thank you for your encouraging words. I've decided to do my best till this war ends."

Kirika smiled back at him.

The bell then rang signaling lunch.

"We better go, unless you'd prefer to skip?"

"Next time maybe, I haven't eaten much since we've gotten here..." Rokkaku chuckled

"Ok, Mr. Soldier." Kirika joked before heading off somewhere

Rokkaku felt his cheeks become kinda rosy from hearing that name. He shook it off as he entered the mess hall.

"Over here Rokkaku!" Saitou waved as he entered

He went over to their spot. As usual there were millions of shaved heads. How he even recognized Saitou was a mystery to him.

"They rang the bell, but they haven't even started to serve yet... I think they're missing one of the workers..." Saitou pouted as his stomach growled

"I'm sorry I'm late!" Rokkaku heard a familiar voice

"Kiri-" He looked to see her preparing her apron around her waist and handkerchief/sash across her head

The bell rang to signal line up. Rokkaku and Saitou were lucky, they were near the beginning so they got the warmer rice that was served. Sometimes if lucky, they'd get green tea with the rice. Today they did.

Kirika happily served each and everyone of the soldiers that waited in line. They all seemed eager to talk to her rather than get food, was it her cooking that made her popular? That couldn't be right, could it? All the staff cook the food together, so if it was just her it'd seem unfair wouldn't it? Rokkaku was wrong by a lot.

"Here you go! One bowl of specially made Kirika rice with green tea!" She smiled serving the soldier before Rokkaku

"T-Thank you!" The soldier stuttered before walking off

"Didn't expect to see me here, did you?" She chuckled at Rokkaku, "Here you go, I put in something extra "special"."

Once the two were reseated Saitou whistled at him, "Rokkaku in all my life, I never would have thought you wer-"

"Shut it..." Rokkaku began to eat his rice

In his rice was some fish meat. He made sure no one else saw and ate it gratefully.

Two weeks passed quickly after that. The only times he had been able to speak with Saitou was during meals and visiting times. On the other hand, he and Kirika had spoke more often, to the point one would think they were childhood friends.

Outside where they had entered two weeks ago with a battered truck, injured and dead soldiers they stood to say farewells to their comrades going to the front.

"Well... Rokkaku, I hope we both survive this." Saitou smiled

"Idiot... Isn't it obvious that we will?" Rokkaku smiled back, "Now don't forget your gas mask."

"I didn't." Saitou laughed before putting it on, "We'll meet again."

Rokkaku nodded this time. Their leader ordered them to salut the leaving troop. Once the truck was out of site they returned to regular duties.

Nowadays there'd be many more trucks coming in with dead and injured soldier. There was one that really made Rokkaku vomit. The poor body belonged to someone younger than him, maybe by 5 years or so. The body had been hit by a shrapnel, it had been a direct hit, a soldier who had been close enough to see it at the time said. The skin was peeling and it showed 3rd degree burns, there weren't maggots running all over the body yet, the upper body was burn completely, yet some parts had a dull shine as if oxidized. The organs were also showing from the huge gash across the body. Rokkaku had his limits from that point on...

One day he received a yellow letter. It said that Saitou had died in the line of duty. Rokkaku crumbled the letter. Saitou was pretty much his family, same with Rokkaku. Their parents died when they were young so they were both sent to an orphanage. Then when the war started they both enrolled into military school and were later drafted those few months ago.

Saitou's truck came back, however Saitou's body wasn't anywhere to be seen. Rokkaku ran up to the nearest returning soldier.

"Tell me, did second lieutenant Saitou really die?" Rokkaku gripped the man's uniform with such tightness the man though he was going to die

"I- I wasn't anywhere near! Ask one of th- those guys!!" The man cried pointing to a group of three men that just came out from the truck

Rokkaku asked them the same thing. They told him he was in charge of their group, a small group of 12, and while they fought a bomb hit nearby, by the time it cleared he was no where to be seen. Rokkaku thanked them for the information before heading off to his room.

In his room he punched the wall in frustration. He received a letter his friend was dead, but the others told him he was MIA. He didn't know which one to trust. he sighed before laying on his bed. He heard someone knock on the door.

"Rokkaku-san?" Kirika peered in

"K-Kirika-san!" Rokkaku immediately got up and straightened his uniform earning a chuckle from Kirika

"I heard about your friend... I- I'm sorry... It must be hard..." She sat on his bed

"Y-yeah..." He felt his voice breaking

"I lost my dear ones long ago... My children to influenza, my husband to the front, and my precious pet cat from drowning."

"Do you mean...?"

"Ah... No, it fell into a koi pond trying to catch fish..."

"At least you had family...."

"I'm sure you do too!"

"H-He was my last family..." Rokkaku managed to croak out

After Kirika comforted him, slipping something into his pocket, they went their separate ways. A few years passed however, they didn't talk as often. It wasn't till a few days later that Kirika's prediction came true. Their camp had been in the range of the bomb that was dropped. It wasn't any bomb, it was the famous atomic bomb. The year was 1945.

At the time Rokkaku had been outside taking care of more wounded and bringing them to the sick ward. That's when he felt the shock, it seemed like a regular earthquake, followed soon after by an intense heat wave . He threw himself on the ground to decrease the impact at first, but it proved useless when the heat wave struck. When the signal to get up was sounded, he got up and looked at the chaos around him. It didn't seem back at first, there were just trucks that had been flipped over and some windows cracked and dying flowers. Another shock came, this time stronger, it caused the cracked windows to break into sharp, tiny shards. The east wing of the building was collapsing and he heard the fire siren could be heard from the nearby village. Without thinking he ran to the east wing to search for Kirika, if she was still alive, and help her.

There was dust lingering around and some small fires around the halls, it was hard getting to the east wing due to his comrades running the opposite direction. A door was still standing, he tried to open it but it was barred by the fallen building. He broke the door's shingle's off with a bayonet that he found that must've been left in the panic. On the other side of the door frame was some space, large enough for him to crawl through. Inside he saw the roof had collapsed, hence the barred door, the wall across the door was half collapsed. The kitchen which was under the roof was also collapsed. Carefully walking over the debris, he saw some were covered in blood, or pools of blood underneath, he hoped none of them weren't Kirika. He heard groaning from nearby, he rushed over, underneath was a worker who looked uninjured, later he'd learn that the worker's legs had been crushed.

"Can you help me...?" The worker groaned fading in and out of conscious

"I can try..." Rokkaku knew he wouldn't be able to the weight of the debris was maybe 5 times his weight, he'd need at least 10 other men to help

"I can't believe this is happening..." The worker was in shock

"Just hang in there, okay?" If the worker went into PTSD, he'd never know of Kirika's wellbeing, "Did you see Kirika-san?"

"N-No... She left before the attack and went to town to get more food..."

"I see... Listen, I'd hate to abandon you, so I'm going to go get more people to help."

"T-Thank you!"

Rokkaku carefully left the way he came to find others to help, by the time he did the worker was gone. He clenched his fists, another promise that was broken, another life wasted. He turned around to leave and head towards the town. Another thing he'd learn is that after he left the Hospital, there had been another aerial attack and he was one of the few who survived it.

Compared to the Hospital, the town was in a much worse state. Many, if not most, of the houses were collapsed and burning, there were people who didn't look human, some had glass sticking to their burnt skin as their skin melt like cheese, others were in water holes and being burnt in them, there were few who were uninjured and crying over lost loved ones. As he proceeded, he found more villagers on the hill by the shrine, there were more dead than alive and every now and then they'd drop like flies. It was worse than the injuries from the front. He browsed through the dead giving respect and looking for Kirika. He was told that Kirika had pasted the town. He rested for the night at the shrine. The next day almost everyone that had been taking refuge or resting at the shrine were dead.

'How fast does this woman move?' He thought to himself as he discovered a picture of them in his pocket before sleeping

He moved on to find Kirika and used the picture for recognition. It'd be miles before he'd reach another village or town. If he was lucky, maybe he'd hit Hiroshima. Everywhere he went he'd see dead bodies, at this point he stopped caring, truly realizing how God must be laughing at them. There had been a few times where he was almost robbed, fortunately he had the bayonet that he had found and used it to scare the thieves away. In some villages he wasn't welcomed, the villagers probably thought the bombing was due to their military's weak defense and preparation, losing their trust.

He hadn't thought about carrying provisions with him, all he had was what he wore and had taken when he left, in other words, his uniform and the bayonet, due to this sometime's he have to scavenge through someone's garden, most of the time looking for beats, white carrots, or potatoes. He knew the air was still bad and found that the ground had radiation, so he used the bayonet to dig holes a foot or two into the ground before picking the root crops. The potatoes had a good chance of being almost untouched by the radiation depending how deep they were buried. The beet and white carrot were a problem, due to their radiation he'd have to cook them in salt water, and the potatoes just in case, it's a good thing he's at the ocean. 

The beaches wouldn't be too dangerous now right, surely the other troops pulled out? He went during the night so he'd be harder to spot invade enemy's were around. Compared to his instinct, there wasn't anyone around, it was almost strangely empty, the few bodies, footprints and bullets that were buried in the sand told a different story. Looking around a bit more clearly in the dark he saw barbed wire and metal strewn out strategically in the sand. Had it been a no man's land? Rokkaku searched among the remaining bodies of comrades and foes. He found a metal canteen with some liquor in it, in another he found a hand gun with some rounds remaining, he also found a hand crafted dagger. He was disappointed he didn't find a bowl for the food. And using the canteen for sea water was risky. He sighed again, when or where was he going to find Kirika, it's been a month since he left the Hospital. It began to rain, even the rain was your enemy, with the radiation the rain was a bit more toxic than usual and didn't do much to help the survivors. Rokkaku took shelter under one of the beams, he was glad it was summer, the metal provided a decent amount of warmth.

He stayed on the beach for a few more days, until one day he awoke to Kirika and Saitou calling his name, unfortunately it was just a dream. It was strange how one could still dream under these circumstances. Holding tears back, he ventured off again on his way to Hiroshima and to find Kirika and now possibly Saitou. He knew his grandparents lived around the area. It was a harsh, never ending game of hide and seek, with Rokkaku forever being the seeker.

When he finally arrived to his grandparent's city, he was taken aback by the bigger atrocity that had hit the city. The city was a shell of its former self, mostly rubble, he and Saitou had visited a few times before after school. It had been so lively, now it looked so empty and death was written everywhere. Like in the previous towns and villages he saw people crying and burnt with hideous 4th degree burns. He wanted to gag, the smell hit him strongly as some of the survivors passed at him with a envious and a hated look. Rokkaku was shoved into a mud puddle, wet and dirty he looked at his hands.

"What was the meaning of all this, the sacrifices, the maps, fighting.... Can't you forgive us God?" Rokkaku mumbled while opening and closing his hands as if trying to grasp the air

"...kkaku... Ro..." a voice snapped him out of his thoughts

 "KIRI-" As he put his hands on the shoulders of a nearby person, they slapped him

"D-Don't touch me!" They screamed at him

"Ka..." He finished shocked before looking back at his hands as if in amazement

'I must be out of it...' He thought squinting to check his eyesight, 'it's probably hopeless at this point, it's been two months...'

He then began to walk around some more, his grandparents had lived around here. Like the few surviving buildings, his grandparents apartment was a shell of its former self. He entered the building, the in spiral stairs were full of ash. No one bothered to clean it, the radiation was strong too. Entering his grandparents apartment he was welcomed by a ransacked apartment and some brass outer layers from the tram his grandma had, last time he heard from them she had another child. The bedroom wasn't any different except the bedsheets were ripped, their silk was special so the thieves must've used it to trade for food. He saw some rations that expired a few years back scattered under the dust. His grandpa's reading glasses were left on the side table. Being exposed in so many ways worried Rokkaku for where he was to sleep for the night. He ended up sleeping on the cheap couch the neighbors had, interestingly, the neighbors had cheap stuff compared to his grandparents, so there were still provisions that he could use.

Once again he woke up to a dream, this time it had only been Kirika. Since he hadn't seen anyone else in his dreams he figured it was their way of saying that they were dead... He had a deep heaviness in his heart.

He searched further in the town, while doing so he had found a list of people who were missing or dead, the list kept going and names kept being added. Finally in the early August section he found Kirika's name. It was now late August. The place where she died, wasn't here but one of the villages he had passed. No one had told him anything. Had she told them to do lighten his burden? He didn't know what to do, the point of all this was meaningless now, his body had reached its limit too. He took the thing that Kirika had placed in his pocket and looked at it, once more and with a smile, Rokkaku collapsed into the world of darkness.

"S...IR... SIR!" He was jolted awake by a nurse

"W-where am I?" He blinked several times

"You're currently in the hospital ward."

The place didn't look like a hospital ward.

"What happened?" his eyes finally adjusted to the nurse

"You were found passed out by the gateway, sir!" The nurse resembled a familiar someone he couldn't remember who

"Who am I?" He should know who he was right?

"Why sir, did you really knock your head that hard, you're Rokkaku."

"May I ask for your name?"

"Why, my name is xxxxxx!" His eyes widened and the tears began to flow again.

"Sir? Are you ok?"

"Why do you look familiar?"

"A great magician doesn't reveal their secrets, Rokkaku-san."

More tears poured from his eyes as he was experiencing his memories from before. She found him, now here she was so close yet so far. Maybe God had finally forgiven him.

"Kirika, I found you." The past him called out

\- Present-

Back in the present, Rokkaku hadn't realized he had taken his pipe out of his mouth. He also didn't take account of the time, nor that it had stopped raining and it was clear outside with the moon shining. 

"Rokkaku-san, it's time for dinner." Saeki returned 

"Just a minute." He turned to turn off his lamp,"So how was the mission?"

"You won't believe what Hirahara ate when were there, Tagami was on his scary side..." Saeki spoke 

As their voices faded, the moonlight from the moon shone on a small picture frame on Rokkaku's desk. It was a faded picture and the creases shown that it had been folded several times before being framed. It said, "To Rokkaku, I hope we meet again someday. From, Kirika." 

**Author's Note:**

> I think I know too much. Anywho, congrats on making it to the end, I'm sorry it was so long, my intelligence and imagination got the best of me I think. I could've been a history major lol.


End file.
